Ryanair raised its profit forecast for the second time in a month today after passenger numbers jumped 22 percent in November, a rise which it said was due in part to the improvements it has made to its much-criticised customer service.

Since a pledge last year by outspoken Chief Executive Michael O'Leary to stop "unnecessarily pissing people off," Ryanair has slashed penalty charges such as for excess baggage and not having a boarding pass, overhauled its web site, tripled its marketing budget and launched business class fares.

It attributed the stronger than expected initial winter performance to the newfound focus on customer service, a stronger forward booking strategy and substantial fare and unit cost advantages over other European airlines.

The Irish airline, which only last month raised its after-tax profit forecast for the year ending next March by almost 20 percent to 750-770 million euros, said it now expects to make a profit of between 810 million and 830 million euros.

Analysts have on average been predicting a 40 percent rise in net profits this year to €732 million, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Ryanair said that despite increasing its seat capacity by 13 percent in the month and opening a large number of new routes designed to appeal to business customers, it also increased its load factor, an indication of the number of seats sold as a percentage of capacity, by seven percentage points to 88 percent.

It added that its final full-year profit would still be heavily reliant on bookings and fare yields in the January-March quarter over which it said it "presently has very little visibility".

The improved focus on service by Ryanair and budget rival easyJet  has increased the pressure on higher cost "full-service" airlines like Air France-KLM and Lufthansa. The German airline's board approved plans on Wednesday to expand its budget flight operations against the backdrop of strikes by staff.